“Creative instability is an epidemic in retail right now,” according to Angelo D’Agostino, former VP of Brand Marketing for Wet Seal, which closed all its brick-and-mortar stores earlier in 2017. D’Agostino recently reunited with Live Nation as Creative Director, after receiving a 2017 Retail Innovator Award for his work at Wet Seal.

In this exclusive Q&A, D’Agostino shares his passion for creative leadership in retail and other businesses.

Kibo has unveiled two new personalization capabilities within its Real-Time Individualization platform: Buy It Again and Real-Time Trending. The features are designed to provide retailers and manufacturers with the ability to produce relevant product suggestions for consumers at the time they are most likely to buy.

Seven months after then-CFO Donald Grimes left to join Sally Beauty, Neiman Marcus is still searching for someone to take the position permanently. Michael Fung, who has served as Interim EVP, CFO and COO of Neiman Marcus since November 2016, will depart effective June 30, 2017.

Fung’s planned departure from the company is “not the result of any disagreement regarding any matter related to parent’s or the company’s operations, policies or practices,” according to an SEC filing.

Less than two months after deciding to close 389 stores upon its filing for bankruptcy, Payless ShoeSource revealed that it may close another 400+ locations. The retailer is seeking court approval to trim its brick-and-mortar business if negotiations with landlords fail to result in rent concessions, according to a bankruptcy court filing.

There will be a hearing on the request to close the second round of stores on June 8.

In the world of email marketing, it seems that less is more. Emails sent to a narrower slice of an e-Commerce retailer’s list (1% to 25% of the total) outperformed those sent to a larger segment (75% or more) on three key metrics: open rate, click-through rate and revenue per recipient (RPR).

Emails sent to the smaller list had an 18.29% open rate, compared to 12.93% for the larger list; a 2.17% click-through rate, compared to 1.33%; and $0.17 RPR, compared to $0.11 for the larger list.

It’s one of the eternal questions retailers face: Do we focus more on customer acquisition or on customer retention?

At first glance, the answer seems to be a no-brainer. Unless a retailer is totally new to the market — meaning acquiring customers is a matter of survival — retaining existing customers offers the double benefit of lower costs and higher returns. The cost of acquiring a new customer can range from five to seven times the expense of keeping an existing one. The probability of converting a new customer falls in the 5% to 20%range; for existing customers, it’s between 60% and 70%.

Consumers: we all know they’re demanding when it comes to what they want, where they want it, and when. But what if retail companies could actually use global consumer data – encompassing varying tastes and behaviors down to the local level – and combine it with their own sales data to make accurate predictions and improve decisions? To date, the ability to act on insights remains a sought-after challenge in retail. In fact, a common theme at NRF’s Big Show this past January was that the retail world, as engaged in consumer data as ever, has yet to crack this code. But that’s beginning to change.

The retail industry is competitive and, with so many purchasing options either online or in-store, customers have their pick of where to get the items that they want and need. This means the pressure is on for retail brands to offer the things their customers want while delivering the best customer experience.

Meanwhile, retail CIOs are also feeling pressure to equip their teams with the best tools and technology needed to best serve their customers. It’s important for CIOs to continually plan for the year ahead and beyond. Here are six things that retail CIOs should know in 2017.

Picture your best business day. Your retail operation is humming right along: customers are pouring in, eager and full of questions, and your associates are right there ready with answers. Shopping carts are full, and you can just feel the sales numbers surging. Your stores are running smooth as silk, welcoming for both customers and associates alike. It’s a pretty satisfying image. The question is, how do you get there?

Most would immediately go to things like the right lighting, background music, attractive displays and well-stocked shelves. But those are just table stakes in today’s competitive retail world. The real answer is by investing in building the expertise of your retail associates. A workforce that’s engaged and knowledgeable will make smart decisions and be ambassadors for your organization’s brand. And they’ll become your secret weapon, if you give them what they need to be successful.